1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cover locking mechanism for locking a cover such as a battery cover at a closed position in an electronic apparatus such as a mobile phone.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, in an electronic apparatus of this type, a battery cover 91 is attached to a rear surface of a cabinet 9, as shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B. When a locking operation piece 92 is turned from a locked position shown in FIG. 5A to an unlocked position shown in FIG. 5B, the battery cover 91 is unlocked, so that the battery cover 91 can be detached from the cabinet 9.
In a cover locking mechanism shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, for example, a seat 94 is formed at a back surface of a cabinet 9; a through hole 90 is formed on the seat 94; and a locking operation piece 92 penetrates through the through hole 90 from the front side to the back side of the cabinet 9. Here, a projection 93 is configured to project from the body of the locking operation piece 92.
At the front surface of the seat 94 of the cabinet 9, a first engaged portion 95 and a second engaged portion 96 are recessed at two positions with a phase difference of about 90°.
On the back side of the cabinet 9, a flat spring 8 is disposed at the end surface of the locking operation piece 92 exposed from the through hole 90. The flat spring 8 is fixed at the end surface of the locking operation piece 92 via a screw 80, and thus, serves as a stopper for the locking operation piece 92.
The flat spring 8 is formed in such a manner as to be radially elongated from a hole 82, through which the screw 80 penetrates. At the longitudinal tip of the flat spring 8, an engaging portion 81 that projects toward the seat 94 of the cabinet 9 and releasably engages the first and second engaged portions 95 and 96 on the seat 94 by the resiliency of the flat spring 8 is formed.
In the above-described cover locking mechanism, when the locking operation piece 92 is turned from the locked position shown in FIG. 5A to the unlocked position shown in FIG. 5B, the flat spring 8 shown in FIG. 6 is turned and elastically deformed, and thus, the engaging portion 81 is released from a state fitted to the first engaged portion 95 whereas it comes into a state engaged to the second engaged portion 96.
In this manner, the projection 93 of the locking operation piece 92 shown in FIG. 7 is released from the end of the battery cover 91, so that the battery cover 91 is unlocked.
To the contrary, when the locking operation piece 92 is turned from the unlocked position shown in FIG. 5B to the locked position shown in FIG. 5A, the flat spring 8 shown in FIG. 6 is turned and elastically deformed, and thus, the engaging portion 81 is released from the state engaged to the second engaged portion 96 whereas it comes into the state engaged to the first engaged portion 95.
In this manner, the projection 93 of the locking operation piece 92 shown in FIG. 7 is engaged to the end of the battery cover 91, so that the battery cover 91 is locked at the closed position.
In this manner, the operation of the locking operation piece 92 can lock and unlock the battery cover 91, and further, provides with a click feeling.
However, in the cover locking mechanism shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the flat spring 8 is made of an expensive material such as copper and is large in longitudinal dimension so as to provide a sufficiently elastic deformability for the flat spring 8 whereas to inhibit the flat spring 8 from being plastically deformed. Therefore, there have arisen problems that not only cost is increased but also an installation space of the cover locking mechanism becomes large due to the large turn radius of the flat spring 8.
An object of the present invention is to provide a cover locking mechanism that can be installed in a reduced space without any need of a flat spring having a large elasticity.